211 Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no man with you?” 2 David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commanded me a business, and has said to me, ‘Let no man know anything of the business about which I send you, and what I have commanded you; and I have appointed the young men to such and such a place.’ 3 Now therefore what is under your hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever there is present.” 4 The priest answered David, and said, “There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about these three days. When I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was but a common journey. How much more then today shall their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the show bread, that was taken from before Yahweh, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. 7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul. 8 David said to Ahimelech, “Isn’t there here under your hand spear or sword? For I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” 9 The priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it; for there is no other except that here.”
David said, “There is none like that. Give it to me.”
10 David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 The servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David the king of the land? Didn’t they sing one to another about him in dances, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?’” 12 David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 He changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard. 14 Then said Achish to his servants, “Look, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? 15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”
31 The child Samuel ministered to Yahweh before Eli. The word of Yahweh was precious in those days; there was no frequent vision. 2 It happened at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place (now his eyes had begun to grow dim, so that he could not see), 3 and the lamp of God hadn’t yet gone out, and Samuel had laid down to sleep, in the temple of Yahweh, where the ark of God was; 4 that Yahweh called Samuel; and he said, “Here I am.” 5 He ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am; for you called me.”
He said, “I didn’t call; lie down again.”
He went and lay down. 6 Yahweh called yet again, “Samuel!”
Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am; for you called me.”
He answered, “I didn’t call, my son; lie down again.” 7 Now Samuel didn’t yet know Yahweh, neither was the word of Yahweh yet revealed to him. 8 Yahweh called Samuel again the third time. He arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am; for you called me.”
Eli perceived that Yahweh had called the child. 9 Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he calls you, that you shall say, ‘Speak, Yahweh; for your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10 Yahweh came, and stood, and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”
Then Samuel said, “Speak; for your servant hears.”
11 Yahweh said to Samuel, “Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of everyone who hears it shall tingle. 12 In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from the beginning even to the end. 13 For I have told him that I will judge his house forever, for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves, and he didn’t restrain them. 14 Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be removed with sacrifice nor offering forever.” 15 Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of Yahweh. Samuel feared to show Eli the vision. 16 Then Eli called Samuel, and said, “Samuel, my son!”
He said, “Here I am.” 17 He said, “What is the thing that Yahweh has spoken to you? Please don’t hide it from me. God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the things that he spoke to you.” 18 Samuel told him every bit, and hid nothing from him.
He said, “It is Yahweh. Let him do what seems good to him.”
19 Samuel grew, and Yahweh was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground. 20 All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of Yahweh. 21 Yahweh appeared again in Shiloh; for Yahweh revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of Yahweh.
